Light strips comprising a plurality of lights supported at spaced positions along an elongate strip are known to be desirable in many locations, for example for aesthetics, for highlighting an edge or for illuminating the perimeter of an object for example. Light emitting diodes (LED's) are commonly used where it is desirable to consume minimal electrical power with minimal manufacturing cost. A typical construction involves two conductive bands supported in a common plane with light emitting diodes connected in parallel between the bands in a generally common plane therewith. The thickness of the LED's are typically greater than the conductive bands so that when coated with a suitable sealer, the sealer must follow the irregular profile of the LED's protruding from the plane of the conductive elements at spaced positions along the strip. Accordingly it is awkward to adequately seal and protect the lights protruding from the flat plane of the conductive elements unless a particularly large surrounding casing of material fully surrounds all of the conductive elements and the light emitting diodes, resulting in a relatively wide strip compared to the individual components thereof which further requires a relatively large amount of casing material to fully surround and protect the components.
Canadian patent application 2,428,723 by Lin discloses an example of an elongate light strip in which two conductive elements are received between two layers of insulating plastic material. Apertures are provided in one of the layers solely for providing connection of LED's mounted externally on the layers to the two conductive elements received between the layers. The externally mounted LED lights are substantially unprotected even when coated as the resulting LED and coating protrudes upwardly beyond the upper surface of the light strip such that any pressure applied to the upper surface of the light strip is concentrated on the protruding LED's.
Furthermore application of a coating typically requires application at high temperature and pressure to the LED's already mounted in connecting with conductive elements.
The heat and pressure of applying the coating such that the coating bonds well can be very damaging to the small conductive connections and small components of the light strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,681 by Duarte discloses a modular lighting system comprising flexible strips of lights in which the lights are somewhat protected within a surrounding housing, however the light strip requires formation of multiple individual components which are uniquely molded in shape such that manufacturing can be comparatively expensive and assembly can be awkward and difficult to automate. Furthermore recessing the lights within surrounding strips of material requires a plurality of individual lenses to be mounted in the upper layer where the lenses then protrude from the top surface of the light strip such that any pressure applied to the light strip is concentrated on the protruding components which can result in damage to the lights mounted within the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,282 by Klinke et al. discloses a multiple light emitting diode module in which the individual LED's are taught to be mounted within their own respective cores of surrounding protective material separate from one another such that a complex arrangement of a surrounding supporting structure and housing is required to support the individual cores of material relative to one another. The resulting structure is quite large and complex, and accordingly is much more expensive to manufacture than the light strips noted above such that it is not particularly relevant to efficient manufacturing of a low cost light strip as in the present invention.